Public Health France was contacted by the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency after the death of five people suffering from Charcot’s disease in two streets in the village of Saint-Vaast-en-Chaussée (Somme), in the north of Amiens, we learned on January 22, 2024 from the two organizations.
Evaluate whether there is a statistical excess
“Five cases of residents, living in the same street or in a perpendicular street for one of them, having contracted the disease between 2007 and 2022“were confirmed, the ARS told AFP, specifying that it had no knowledge”other cases declared in the municipality“.
The ARS contacted the national public health agency to “determine whether there is in fact a statistical excess of diseases in the observed population“and, if this excess exists, “to determine if there are one or more local causes for this grouping of cases, other than chance, on which it is possible to act“, indicated to AFP Santé Publique France, confirming information from the Courier Picard. At this stage, “investigations are underway” and have “firstly with the aim of carefully documenting the cases“, stage “indispensable” to the investigation of the cluster.
Read alsoCharcot disease: the fungus responsible for the death of 14 people has been identified
Progressive paralysis of the muscles
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), another name for Charcot disease, causes progressive paralysis of the muscles, creating a state of confinement in the patient, and generally causes death within three years. To date, there is no effective neuroprotective treatment. Some situations “unusual“clustered cases of ALS”have been reported to Public Health France over the last 10 years, without it being possible at this stage to hypothesize a common cause for the different cases“.
Credit: John SAEKI/AFP
For Pierre-François Pradat, neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital (APHP) and co-president of the scientific council of the Association for Research on ALS (ARSLA), the clusters are “frequent“and related to”chance“, he puts things into perspective. According to him, five cases since 2007 “This is not a gigantic excess incidence given a disease that is still quite common.“, he adds, specifying that the disease was of genetic origin for 10% of patients.